St. Francisville Masonic Lodge To Host MoCHIP Program At Old Settlers’ Day

By Kevin Fox

St. Francisville Lodge #588 A.F. & A.M. will once again be sponsoring the Missouri Child Identity Program (MoCHIP) during this year’s Old Settlers’ Day on September 27. When the lodge sponsored this event two years ago 225 children attended the event. The hours for this year’s MoCHIP program will be from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., but if there are children who do not get a chance to attend, they may do so immediately after the parade, but they should let those working at the program know that they want to participate and that they will be on the way shortly after the parade. As was the case two years ago, the program is being held at the Sever Library.

Missouri Freemasons are bringing this program to communities throughout the State. The Missouri Masonic Children's Foundation, the sole sponsor, is working with local Masonic Lodges to provide consistent and comprehensive MoCHIP events as part of their ongoing commitment to Missouri's children and families. This program is provided "FREE OF CHARGE" to every Missouri family who participates.

The Purpose of the event is to provide parents with digital photos, digital fingerprints, and other identifying information for the child free of charge. The information is then put on to mini CD-ROM disk designed to be carried with the parents so that it could be given to law enforcement in the event the child becomes missing. The disk is set up so that Amber Alerts can be generated directly from the disk allowing law enforcement to broadcast the initial information faster. The child identification kits will be given to the parents. None of the information is obtained at the program is retained by law enforcement, MoCHIP, or its associated organizations. If the kit becomes lost or damaged the kits cannot be replaced or reordered. But, parents can attend another MoCHIP event free of charge. More information about the program and a calendar of events in the area can be found at www.mochip.org.

Members of St. Francisville Lodge #588 will be volunteering their time at the event. Other lodges from Missouri and Iowa, as well as members of Kahoka #40 OES. Flyers providing more information will soon be sent home with local school children.

What is MOCHIP?MOCHIP is a comprehensive child identification program designed to give Missouri families a measure of protection against the ever increasing problem of missing and abducted children. MOCHIP stands for MissOuri CHild Identification and Protection Program. The program uses a computer disc to provide information to the parents. Microchips are not used in the program. Missouri Freemasons are bringing this program to communities throughout the State. The Missouri Masonic Children's Foundation, the sole sponsor, is working with local Masonic Lodges to provide consistent and comprehensive MOCHIP events as part of their ongoing commitment to Missouri's children and families. This program is provided "FREE OF CHARGE" to every Missouri family who participates. How does it work? The program consists of five major components: ·Digital Photographs ·Digital Fingerprints ·Child Information and Emergency contacts ·Dental bite impression ·Two (2) laminated ID cards We ask that all participants fill out a Permission Form to participate in the MOCHIP event. Parents or guardians then fill out the Information Collection Sheet with information about their child. All information is voluntary. The digital photographs, digital fingerprints and Child information and emergency contacts are given to the parent or guardian of the child on a mini-CD computer disk. The information on the disk is compatible with the format required by the "AMBER ALERT" program. The dental bite impression provides an impression of the biting surface of the child's teeth, which like fingerprints, are unique to each individual. The dental impression collects enough saliva to provide a DNA sample and a source for a scent for trained canine search and recovery teams. Together, these five measures provide a powerful and recovery tool. The Masonic Children's Foundation retains no information concerning the children; only the signed permission form is retained by the Foundation. Who can participate?Any child from the age of 0-21. Whether it be from Missouri or bordering states, or visiting relatives for that matter, MOCHIP will process any child. Our goal is to keep kids safe!

Misconceptions:·MOCHIP = MissOuri CHild Identification & Protection program. We do not use Microchips or any other invasive "chips." ·NO INFORMATION IS RETAINED. PERIOD! After each MOCHIP event, individual computers are wiped clean of all gathered information using specialized software, after which the private, password protected, MOCHIP server undergoes a 3-phase specialized deletion process to obliterate all files collected that day. This process takes anywhere from 45 min. to 2 hours, depending on how many children had been processed at a particular event. ·All that is retained by the sponsor, the Missouri Masonic Children's Foundation, is the signed permission slip that authorizes the foundation to collect the information then disband of it. ·IMPORTANT TO NOTE: None of the computers and/or equipment have, or ever will be, subject to any particular or extraneous Internet connections, and therefore cannot be "hacked" into for any reason for the purposes of obtaining privileged information. ·The MOCHIP diskettes provided are encrypted.